This massive amount will have to be forked out by the municipality over a period of 11 years according to a binding contract, a copy of which is in possession of Rekord.
Yet, after paying out this huge amount, the pre-paid meter infrastructure will not be either council or consumer property.

From the contract it has emerged that as far back as 2 October 2012 the city manager, Jason Ngobeni, had already committed the municipality contractually with the firm, Peu Capital Partners (Pty) Ltd, to take over all the responsibility and the total infrastructure of the metro in the supplying and installing of smart prepaid meters as well as taking care of the collection of revenue for electricity delivered.

Preliminary estimates by the Democratic Alliance (DA) indicate that Peu will stand to receive R27-billion over the duration of the contract term at 19,5% commission on all electricity sold. Council’s revenue from electricity sales is currently in the region of R7,7-billion per annum.

The contract was allegedly concluded in an apparent breach of various provisions of municipal supply chain management regulations, several sections of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and also in breach of the Municipal Systems Act (MSA).

Lex Middelberg of the DA pointed out that the contract with Peu was a financial bomb, which could ruin the city’s cash flow.

“The metro is not the first municipality to roll out pre-aid smart metering, but it will be the first where the implementation has a negative revenue effect,” he said. “This contract was concluded without any council resolution. In addition, the public must be consulted and given the opportunity to comment on contracts of this nature in terms of Section 21 of the Municipal Systems Act.”

Middelberg added that the effect of this contract is that Peu will become an unlicensed electricity reseller. “This is in breach of the Electricity Act and would probably require Nersa approval, however, the most worrisome aspect is that all the infrastructure created by Peu for the city and all smart meters installed by them remain the property of Peu. At the end of the contract term the city, although we would have paid dearly for the infrastructure, would either be locked in to renew the contract or we have to find the resources to buy the infrastructure from Peu. Or we would have to replace it with an entirely new infrastructure.”

Middelberg said that the DA is considering all options and is giving the matter urgent attention. “We will raise the issue with the mayor of course, but also with National Treasury, Nersa and the Auditor General.”

The service agreement is to be signed at the end of this month and the public only has up until 28 April to lodge comments and objections. The details of this service agreement to be signed sets out that once Peu has taken over all assets of electricity supply they will earn 19% on each rand paid for power.

To enable them to take over the rest of the system the municipality has to pay Peu a further 5,5 cent in each rand which brings the total up to 25%. Once this contract has run its full course and the metro decides to no longer use the service of Peu, the metro will have to buy the infrastructure from Peu in one lump sum transaction at its ‘market value’.

“In other words, we will find ourselves in the situation to have paid for the infrastructure many times over in 11 years of the contract and then still have to pay the full capital value of the infrastructure again in a single tranche. Where will we find the money to buy the system in 11 years?” he asked. “We are investigating all avenues to have this contract and its unsigned service agreement nullified.”

An investigation has revealed that Peu has no track record for installing prepaid electricity meters. Their financial status is listed as 1 000 authorised shares and an issued capital of a mere R100. The directors are DM de Quintal (2003), MP Malungani (2003), CB Tshili (2003) and TH Zuma, the latter being appointed on 5 February 2013.

“This is clearly not a company with the size and experience to handle a project of this magnitude,” said Adriana Randall, the DA’s finance spokesperson. With R27-billion at stake we expect that National Treasury would make sure that all legal requirements relating to municipal financial management is adhered to.”

Read the Tshwane metro's comment here later.

As if the above Scandal is not yet big enough, please read on, now :

SayNOto 'Smart Meters'

… as they are not so smart, but rather dangerous !!

'Smart' Meters, as they are already in use in various countries overseas, are not so SMART at all, as they may be causing SERIOUS HEALTH ISSUES, due to uncontrolled (HF/RF) radiation from them. It is only a matter of time . . .

Please beware !!

TOXINS, never mind how pretty wrapped up still stay POISONOUS!
- Well, certain Electro-Magnetic Fields are genotoxic and neurotoxic !!

When Technology threatens YOUR HEALTH and WELL-BEING, it should not be implemented, or only with utmost caution, after seeing long-time tests & effects, and not like the Cellphone Technology was implemented all round the globe.
We urgently need MORE GREEN TECHNOLOGY, which works FREE of such RADIATION !!!
It is NOT FAIR and ETHICAL to even THINK of installing technology, in South Africa (or anywhere else), that is not safe and could be causing various SERIOUS HEALTH ISSUES overseas and is already being REMOVED there again - after several Court Cases have been won against the Power Companies !!
We are already having more than enough HEALTH IMPLICATIONS with problems from Cellphones and Wireless-LAN technologies, as is.
- Who signs liable for DAMAGES to your HEALTH ???

— — — Rather be CAREFUL than sorry !! — — —

A global "Smart Grid" program is being implemented which is blasting homes and businesses with more electromagnetic radiation than human beings have ever been subject to in human history. It is utterly preposterous to assume this will not lead to major human epidemics.

HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID/ and install similar //Smart Meter Technology which has already caused severe ILLNESSES at other places overseas and needed to be removed?

Petitions against Smart Meter Rollout:

How do they work:

Smart Meters are supposed to replace ordinary meters for electricity, water, gas and other items to be measured regularly.
They are working over the existing power line, transmitting their corresponding reading by superimposing (coded) high frequency electrical impulses onto the power line transferring it to a logging station on the supplier's side.
— The workings if this is very similar to Ethernet over Power Line also called 'Homeplug Powerline' (50 - 200 Mbps), this is also something we would not recommend.
— Then there are also the WIRELESS Versions transmitting everything via a WIRELESS NETWORK (RF), some meters transmit there readings every 15 minutes!!

Problems caused by these 'Smart Meters':

By superimposing a high frequency (HF) signal to reach the supply organisation (like the City Council) one would not only need quite a high signal level, but the strange thing is the transferred signal cannot really be directed into a specific direction - directly to the service provider collecting these readings, so it will also reach the internal wiring of your whole house and that of all your neighbours in the area, too. Likewise if your neighbours' readings are transferred these will also reach your home's internal wiring.
So far not so bad, but over the time these 'Smart Meters' have now been implemented numerous people had serious HEALTH PROBLEMS, due to these superimposed HF frequencies and the radiation it causes. Even various doctors have made their voices heard as their patients health is greatly affected - with all kinds of problems, commonly known (and still unknown) which are linked to Electro Smog1 and instructed people to return their 'Smart Meters' and have them replaced with the old analogue ones again.
However this procedure is not as easy, mostly resulting in a court case with the suppliers. So, please be careful and don't install such a 'Smart Meter' from the start and make sure that your neighbour does not install one either, as this will also interfere with your health - and will only be a matter of time to see and feel the actual problems.

Please sign up and make use of ourFORUM, to discuss these problems, or directly join the EHS Forum, or on Facebook, and exchange information with people who are already experiencing these problems and those who have effectively gotten rid of such devices.

— Please don't be ignorant, after all its YOUR HEALTH that is on the line here.

â–ºâ–ºâ–º Lawsuit Against Meter Sickness - Are You In? â—„â—„â—„

This is an announcement of legal actions against harm from wireless radiation from household and commercial digital electric meters.

More and more people are discovering that otherwise unexplained health problems can be correlated and attributed to electromagnetic exposures from wireless devices, especially the new generation of "Smart Grid" digital electric meters.

The recent and ongoing worldwide deployment of digital electric meters on homes has caused a major increase in symptoms, illnesses and injuries to health. The massive scale of these problems is just starting to be recognized.

Those industries, businesses and individuals who profit from wireless technologies, such as your power company, are suppressing information about the hazards of wireless technologies. They are attacking proponents of responsible wireless management and they are knowingly exposing the public to harm and damage hoping that the general public and the media will refuse to believe the obvious and proven connection between electromagnetic radiation and biological damage.

Because of the wireless industry's irresponsibility and wrongdoing, unfortunately, legal actions have become necessary. There are many illnesses and injuries caused by digital electric metering. Liz Barris, a lawsuit organizer, announces in this video how to recognize the symptoms of EMR exposure and how to contact competent legal assistance to join existing and upcoming legal actions to protect you and your family's health, safety, privacy, rights and property.

For updates and things you can do to assist in spreading the word & protecting both your & your children's health. Young people are the most in danger from practically all wireless devices. Great message in a musical composition, written specifically for the KeepEmStraight Channel. Watch section starting at 52:52 to hear this tune in context with the subject.

The Dark Side of 'Smart' Meters

In this invitational presentation to the San Francisco Tesla Society consulting engineer Rob States explains how PG&E's so-called 'smart' meters work and why they endanger health and privacy. He asks the obvious question, "Why would you trust the company that brought you Prop. 16?"
For more info:

The Truth About Smart' Meters

The city councils of Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Capitola and Watsonville, and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors have called for a moratorium on the installation of PG&E "SmartMeters". Why is PG&E ignoring these explicit demands and going ahead with the 2+ billion dollar "roll out"? The SmartMeter system collects electric and gas usage from homes and transmits the data via pulsed microwave to a wireless network (=no meter readers!). FIND OUT if these microwave meters are the future for GREEN energy or DANGEROUS and INACCURATE and reveal private details of daily life - when people wake up, come home, take a hot bath and go on vacation.

How to Make Sure Smart Meters Don't Hurt You by HelioPower

Smart Meters can either work for you—or against you. Tens of millions of smart meters are being installed globally. In California alone 13 million homeowners will have a smart meter by the end of 2012. It will monitor your energy use, tying you into a smart grid world.

If you have a monthly electric bill of $100 or more you need to know about smart meters, and how to make sure they don't hurt you. Specifically, how they can negatively impact your bank account, your lifestyle and your privacy.

You have the opportunity to make the "smart meter" reality help you.

With solar, you can make the smart meter work for you—-instead of against you. The smart meter can provide you with energy information. By adding solar, you can turn this information to your benefit. You can save energy and money. You can ensure your family's privacy and security.

Come to the Smart Meters and Solar neighborhood meetup in your town to get all your questions answered, check out your energy options and see how much money you can truly save.

How the Internet can Green the Electrical Grid

Several powerful forces are gathering to make fundamental and irrevocable changes to the century-old grid. The next-generation grid, often called the ‘smart grid,’ will feature distributed energy production, vastly more storage, tens of millions of stochastic renewable-energy sources, and the use of communication technologies both to allow precise matching of supply to demand and to incentivize appropriate consumer behaviour. These changes will have the effect of reducing energy waste and reducing the carbon footprint of the grid, making it ‘smarter’ and ‘greener.’

In this talk, I will demonstrate that the concepts and techniques pioneered by the Internet, the fruit of four decades of research in this area, are directly applicable to the design of a smart, green grid. This is because both the Internet and the electrical grid are designed to meet fundamental needs, for information and for energy, respectively, by connecting geographically dispersed suppliers with geographically dispersed consumers. Keeping this and other similarities (and fundamental differences, as well) in mind, I propose several specific areas where Internet concepts and technologies can contribute to the development of a smart, green grid. I hope that our work will initiate a dialogue between these two communities.

S. Keshav is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Tetherless Computing at the School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Canada and the Editor of ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. Earlier in his career he was a researcher at Bell Labs and an Associate Professor at Cornell. He is the author of a widely used graduate textbook on computer networking. He has been awarded the Director's Gold Medal at IIT Delhi, the Sakrison Prize at UC Berkeley, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Best Student Paper award at ACM SIGCOMM, a Best Paper award at ACM MOBICOM, and two Test-of-Time awards from ACM SIGCOMM. He is a co-founder of three startups: Ensim Corporation, GreenBorder Technologies, and Astilbe Networks. His current interests are in the use of tetherless computing for rural development, and for gaining efficiency in energy generation, transmission, and consumption. Keshav received a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Delhi in 1986 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991, both in Computer Science.

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Privacy Policy
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We collect certain information:
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targeted content in certain, specified instances.
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optional information that you voluntarily provide to us (see below).
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information that has been made anonymous so that it does not identify a specific person;
permanently de-identified information that does not relate or cannot be traced back to you specifically; and
non-personal statistical information collected and compiled by us and information that you have provided voluntarily in an open, public environment or forum including (without limitation) any blog, chat room, community, classifieds or discussion board. Because the information has been disclosed in a public forum, it is no longer confidential and does not constitute Personal Information subject to protection under this policy.
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